Consequences of a nonexistent Armageddon
by AnnaBee
Summary: Post 'Last of the Time Lords, ficlets. Introspection, picking up the pieces. Multiple Characters. Chapter 3: Shattered now up
1. The Broken CD

Hopefully, this will end up as a series of ficlets dealing with life after the events of Last of the Time Lords for those who remember the Year That Never Was, and a few of those who don't.

So far unbetad (volunteers?), so there may be a few mistakes. I'll try to update within the week.

The Broken CD

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The first thing Tish does when she gets home is smash her Scissor Sisters CD. She can't even look at it without being reminded of that psycho bastard singing along as the world burned.

Her friends don't understand. She's different, they tell her with their puzzled looks and awkward pauses. They are just the same as she remembers, chattering on about everything and nothing, things she once would have found fascinating. Now she finds them inane and meaningless. Tish wants to scream at them, shake them until they understand. Who cares which celebrity is doing what? She watched the world suffer, thousands of people die, and she's afraid. Afraid right to her bones. Afraid it will happen again and that this time there will be no Martha and the Doctor to stop it.

She doesn't sleep well. By the looks on their faces, she can tell that her parents don't either. That awful, terrible Year That Never Was keeps playing in her head each time she closes her eyes. Martha seems to be coping better than anyone even though Tish is sure that the things she saw as she walked the world must have been far worse than anything that happened aboard the Valiant. It makes her wonder just what Martha saw during her travels with the Doctor.

Tish doesn't know how to cope with the unchanged world. All she knows is that her life will never be the same.

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Review, or not. Whatever you prefer. I like reviews. They make me happy.


	2. The Lucky One

It's Leo's turn to ramble on a bit.

If I've got the timeline a little out, please let me know.

Thanks for the review; it's nice to know someone's reading.

I still need a beta. (hint hint)

Disclaimer: I'm not sure who owns them, but it isn't me. Martha speaking Japanese comes from...someone else. Someone who wrote 'Martha at Torchwood' ficlets.

The Lucky One

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It was the phone call that started it all off. Martha frantic, telling him to run, hide, and if it had been Tish or his mum Leo would have laughed it off but it was the responsible 'almost-very-nearly-Doctor' Martha and he knows she's never been prone to hysteria. Soon enough he's hearing about his parents' arrest and watching his sister being labeled a dangerous criminal.

He had no idea what was going on. He still doesn't. He's pretty sure that it has something to do with those Toclafane things and the Prime Minister going crazy, but how his family could possible be involved in something like that, well, it just doesn't seem likely.

They're all so different now. Leo doesn't understand how people could change so drastically in just two days. Tish is no longer the carefree social butterfly she used to be. She's become so serious and angry. One comment that is even vaguely insulting and she blows up at him, nearly becoming violent (never mind that he was just teasing her in the same way he has a thousand times before. Their parents had needed to hold her back. Their behaviour confuses him as well. For one thing, they are actually able to spend more than five minutes in the same room without getting into a blazing row. Leo watches in disbelief as they are calm and considerate, even affectionate towards each other! The suddenness of the change is unsettling, but seeing them the way he remembers from his childhood comforts him in a way he doesn't expect. His Dad has even dumped Annalise (who Leo was pleased to find has even less of an idea of what has happened than he does). Of all of them, Martha seems to be the least changed. At least that's what he thought at first. It's hard to see amidst Tish's wild mood swings and his parent's sudden reconciliation, but Martha is different. There's a new confidence about her, a faith in herself and her abilities that wasn't there before. And when he looks in her eyes she seems older somehow. Wiser, and more experienced. (He's also caught her cursing in a language he thinks may be Japanese, but that he'd have been sure she didn't know)

It frustrates him beyond belief. Something happened to is family to change them, something that bind them together somehow, but none of them will tell him what that something is. When he asks, Tish withdraws into herself and ends the conversation. His Mum changes the subject somewhat awkwardly and his Dad just shakes his head. Martha gets a strange look in her eyes, gives a sad little half smile and tells him he's lucky he doesn't know. She tells him he's better off that way.

Somehow that doesn't make him feel any better. Whatever it was that happened during those two days has left him an outsider in his own family. Leo hates the feeling.

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Review, or not. Whatever you prefer. I like reviews. They make me happy.


	3. Shattered

I was planning on doing the rest of the Joneses first, but Lucy wouldn't shut up.

Disclaimer: I'm not sure who owns them, but it isn't me.

**Shattered**

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The gun feels heavy in her hands. Solid. Real. It isn't. She knows it, learnt it well. The bang, the shot, the loudness of it felt real but it wasn't, can't have been because how could He die? She killed Harold Saxon but that's okay because he wasn't real. Harold Saxon. Harry. Not real. Only The Master is real.

She wonders if she is real. Lucy isn't. Lucy Saxon can't be real, how can Lucy Saxon be real if Harold Saxon isn't? There is only The Master. The Master and Wife #1.

Wife #1 is all alone now. She's surrounded by people but they aren't real even though they like to insist that they are. There are no more people-people just Toclafane-people. The unreal people around her speak so nicely to her that sometimes she speaks back. It's nice to pretend sometimes that she's not alone. The unreal people let her keep the lights on sometimes. She likes it better when they do. Darkness. The darkness is more real than anything else, dark black empty voices screaming out in horror. Utopia isn't utopia but it is Utopia. Horrible terrible lonely and she wants to believe t isn't real but it is real real real…

The unreal people come and give Wife #1 things. Blue things that make hers sleep, Red things that keep her awake, White things that make her fly. She likes the flying but not the falling but you can't have the flying without the falling afterwards can you?

Sometimes she has visitors. Usually it's Lucy Saxon's people who are as unreal as Lucy Saxon. Wife #1 ignores them. Sometimes real people come. The Freak and the Legend and the Doctor. The Freak doesn't come often. He spends the time with small talk, avoiding talking about anything real. She gets bored of this quickly and he never stays for long. The Legend comes often. Wife #1 has lost track of days weeks months years unimportant measurements of how little time they have left, but she knows there's a regularity in the Legend's visits. She likes these visits the most, as the Legend is willing to talk about real things. She tells Wife #1 about traveling the world and watching people suffer. Wife #1 tells the Legend about Utopia and the darkness and the nothingness. She's almost sorry that the Legend will have to die.

The Doctor only visits her once. He sits quietly in the white room with her and is eyes are filled with fire and lightning and the promise of pain terror no mercy. He scares Wife #1 more than anything else. More than the darkness and the emptiness and more than the Master ever did. The Doctor leans in close to her and asks the one question she cannot answer.

"Why?"

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Reviews make me happy. Being happy makes me want to write more.


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